Josh Noem, writer and editor

Grotto Network

As senior editor, I source and develop written content for Grotto Network, a media outlet aimed at walking with Catholic young adults to navigate life, make an impact, and keep the faith. (Join our team of freelancers here.)

Here is my author page for pieces I have contributed to Grotto.

Here is a piece I contributed to Angelus about the patron saint of survivors of sexual assault.

 

FaithND

Daily Gospel Reflection

As editor of faith.nd.edu, the spirituality outreach site for the Notre Dame Alumni Association, I’m responsible for sending an email to 70,000 people every day. The Daily Gospel Reflection email email includes:

• The Gospel reading for the day.
• A short reflection written by someone in the Notre Dame family; I solicit and edit these contributions.
• A prayer composed by a Holy Cross priest; I solicit and edit these prayers.
• A link to read about the Saint of the Day and his or her connection to Notre Dame; I research and write these biographies.

Stories of Faith

In addition to our daily email, we gather faith-sharing stories and share them with our readers who want to go deeper than the short Gospel reflections. I solicit these essays from proven writers by creating a quarterly writing prompt, scheduling contributors, and editing submissions. They are published on the “Live” page of FaithND—here is a collection of our best stories. 

Lent and Advent Series

We offer seasonal enhancements to our readers to help them prepare for the high points of the liturgical year. I write copy for this this content, which is shared through the daily email:

• Our Lenten Art Journey for 2018 drew high praise from our readers. I sourced all the art and wrote all the copy.
• Our Chapels of ND Advent series for 2017 was a tour through the chapels of Notre Dame. I helped plan the stops of the tour and wrote all the copy for narration.
• The 28 Days of Peace Advent series for 2016 offered a daily calendar with prompts to help readers practice peace. I wrote all the copy for this initiative.

Virtual Pilgrimage of the Holy Land 

As another enrichment for the readers of our Daily Gospel Reflection, I visited the Holy Land in 2015 and created a virtual pilgrimage. The pilgrimage took shape in two parts: one was a series of reports from the places where Gospel stories took place; the other was an in-depth study of the places where Jesus was born, died, was buried, and rose again. I researched, reported, and wrote all the copy for all of the elements of the pilgrimage; I provided most of the photographs (a few are stock photos) and captured all of the video.

 

The End of Ending: A Novel

In addition to my work with FaithND, I’ve dedicated time over the past three years toward writing a novel, the End of Ending, which imagines how the resurrection of the dead might take place in northern Indiana. It is a story steeped in baseball, beer, and the ancient hope of life beyond death. I’m currently seeking an agent to represent my work.

THE END OF ENDING tells the story of Bryant Mayfield, a disabled American Indian starting a beer brewery in Andover, Indiana, who falls in love with Estelline, a biology graduate student. Estelline is studying a group of elderly religious brothers who appear to be growing younger and begin training their rejuvenating bodies by forming a baseball team. The two marry and just when Estelline’s research uncovers the fact that people in Andover have stopped aging — in fact, they are recovering from terminal illness — she dies suddenly in a miscarriage. Devastated, Bryant sets out to find hope by mentoring the troubled boy, the son of a murdered farmworker, and is transformed by the dying and rising he is asked to do.

 

Freelance Projects

“Happily Even After” Blog

Since 2010, my wife, Stacey, and I have been invited by the US Bishops Conference to write blog posts about marriage and family life for their marriage enrichment site, foryourmarriage.org. A few recent examples from my posts:

• “Here’s the Thing About Kids at Mass”
• “How to Raise a Saint”
• “Family Ties”
• In addition, we have co-authored several articles for the site that are in general circulation, such as this: “How to Take Young Children to Mass.”

Reports for the University of Notre Dame

I authored two reports for Notre Dame’s Office for Mission Engagement and Church Affairs in 2013:

• University of Notre Dame’s Report on Catholic Mission
• University of Notre Dame’s Report on the Tantur Ecumenical Institute (only available in print)

Marriage Formation Resources

In 2013, Ave Maria Press invited Stacey and me to write a three-part introduction to Natural Family Planning for couples preparing for marriage accessing their online resource, TogetherForLife.com:

• “What Everybody Ought to Know about Natural Family Planning,”
• “Sexual Intimacy: Becoming a Total Gift of Self”
• “The Gifts and Challenges of Practicing NFP”

Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life invited Stacey and me to contribute to their journal with an article on working with couples preparing for marriage and inviting them into the life of the Church: “Evangelizing with a Beautiful, Persuasive Invitation,” Church Life Journal, volume 1.3, summer 2012.

Magazine Essays

“What I will Remember about Saying Goodbye to Father Ted,” an article for Notre Dame magazine with observations from the weekend of Father Hesburgh’s funeral.

“The Family that Prays Together,” a reflection in Notre Dame Magazine on editing FaithND’s daily Gospel reflection email.

“On the Bluff” contribution to Portland Magazine about the men’s group I led at the University of Portland, summer 2011 issue, page. 10. (I’m actually really proud of this one because it caught the eye of Brian Doyle, the superstar editor of the magazine whose example showed me writing could be more than a lark—it could be a craft, and one could make a living with it.)

“Our Daily Bread,” US Catholic, 2007. This is not available in digital format, but was the first article I had accepted at a national publication as a freelancer, and getting paid to write words jazzed me up.